Wed, Apr 24, 2024
The US Congress late on Tuesday gave final approval to a US$95 billion aid package for Taiwan, Ukraine and Israel, with US President Joe Biden quickly vowing to sign the long-delayed bill and begin delivering fresh supplies this week to Ukraine.The bill includes US$8 billion in military support for
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday.Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, mo
STANDING TOGETHER: US Representative Lisa McClain underlined the importance of bolstering US-Taiwan ties, which would also promote peace around the world Visiting US representatives yesterday reiterated staunch US support for Taiwan, and pledged to continue strengthening security, economic and social relationships with the nation.“By standing with Taiwan we send a clear message to Beijing and to the world. The United States will not waver in our comm
Supporters and opponents of abolishing the death penalty yesterday engaged in heated debate at the Constitutional Court.Twelve of the 15 justices heard arguments from the legal team representing 37 inmates on death row and legal experts advocating the removal of the death penalty, as well as from Mi
An aide to a German far-right member of the European Parliament has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China, German prosecutors said yesterday, deepening concerns about foreign interference ahead of June’s EU elections.The allegations, coming a day after three other people suspected of spying
Two Malaysian military helicopters yesterday collided and crashed during a training session, killing all 10 crew onboard, the nation’s rescue agency said.Footage shared online showed several helicopters flying low in formation over the Lumut naval base, about 160km from the capital, Kuala Lumpur.The
SOLVING PROBLEMS: Taiwan can use its advantages in tech to make swift progress and create an international paradigm in facing the challenges of climate change, Lai said President-elect William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that he would push forward the net zero transition, and accelerate geothermal and hydrogenic energy developments after taking office next month.Lai made the remarks in a prerecorded video played at the opening session of the Earth Solutions 2024 Susta
Progress on stationing a US munitions stockpile in Taiwan is unclear, but there is an “approximate plan” in place, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said on Wednesday in response to questions about whether Washington is moving forward with plans to move its East Asia stockpile to Tai
A bill that would shorten the time required for foreign high-level professionals to apply for naturalization passed committee at the legislature on Wednesday.The amendment to the Nationality Act (國籍法) passed the Internal Administration Committee after hearing reports from the Ministry of the Interio
A total of 41 US military personnel were stationed in Taiwan as of December last year, a US congressional report said on Friday last week ahead of Tuesday’s passage of an aid package that included US$8 billion for Taiwan.The Congressional Research Service in a report titled “Taiwan Defense Issues fo
UPDATE: Although there were 87,742 hospital visits for flu-like illnesses last week, numbers are declining, while 186 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 The number of enterovirus cases has exceeded the epidemic threshold, with 11,643 hospital visits reported last week — the highest number for the same week in a decade, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.There were 11,643 hospital visits for enterovirus last week, a 22.3 percent inc
Lawmakers across party lines yesterday urged the Ministry of Agriculture to investigate a suspected case of cat food causing hypokalemia, while the Taipei Animal Protection Office said it had collected samples from the manufacturer for testing.A cat owner on Friday last week posted on a Facebook gro
A National Taiwan University (NTU) study has concluded that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) combined with a small-molecule medicine eradicates bacteria biofilms on catheters, which could help prevent catheter-associated infections common among hospital inpatients.Biofilms are a collection of different sp
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month sti
AGRICULTURE HEAD: Chen Junne-jih, who was deputy agriculture minister before being named acting minister after his predecessor resigned, is to formally take over Premier-designate Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced more new members of his Cabinet that is to take office on May 20, with five of those appointed keeping their posts and one new face being introduced.Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲), Overseas Community Affairs Council Minister Hsu Chi
INDUSTRY RELATIONS: The education ministry is to provide NT$50 million annually to facilitate faculty and student interactions, and dual-degree programs Taiwanese universities on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to promote cooperation with Japanese universities in Okinawa Prefecture and Kyushu with a subsidy provided by the Ministry of Education, the ministry said yesterday.The University Academic Alliance in Taiwan, comprising 12 u
PICKUP: The economics ministry expects manufacturing output to improve quarterly for the rest of the year, buoyed by demand for chips and other electronic components Industrial production rose 6.01 percent year-on-year last quarter, snapping six quarters of losses, due to robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices, high-performance computing (HPC) applications and data centers, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.Manufacturing output, whi
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its operations were not affected by a spate of strong earthquakes that were centered in eastern Taiwan and shook much of the nation early yesterday morning.In a statement, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said that soon after the
Taiwan’s economic activity last month continued to gain support from demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, but some manufacturing industries remained weak while momentum in the service sector slowed, an electricity consumption survey by the Taiwan Research Institute showed yesterday.
Nymphia Wind, the pride of Taiwan’s queer community, on Friday night won the crown on the latest season of the US reality show RuPaul’s Drag Race, becoming the first East Asian drag queen and second Asian queen to win the vaunted title. For her final lip-synching performance, she shuffled onto the s
As Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu’s party won by a landslide in Sunday’s parliamentary election, it is a good time to take another look at recent developments in the Maldivian foreign policy. While Muizzu has been promoting his “Maldives First” policy, the agenda seems to have lost sight of a nu
As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using many tactics to subvert the government, Taiwanese need to be aware of the possibility that it is also trying to sow confusion among the public and cause dissatisfaction with the ruling party.However, as this is not the eve of a major war, the CCP is unli
ON THE BALL: Murray defied James to match him for points in the final moments, later saying that he wanted to lean on his teammates, but they told him to just keep shooting Jamal Murray on Monday fired the game-winner at the buzzer as the NBA champions Denver Nuggets erased a 20-point deficit to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 101-99 to take a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference playoff series.The drama in Denver followed a scintillating comeback by the New York Knicks, w
The head of the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) on Monday demanded an investigation into the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) handling of 23 positive tests by Chinese swimmers and welcomed the global body’s threat of legal action.During a nearly two-hour video call with the media, WADA fired back at
Aaron Boone did not tie the record for fastest ejection, but the New York Yankees manager did think it was among the most unjust dismissals.Boone was thrown out of Monday’s 2-0 loss to the Oakland Athletics five pitches in by Hunter Wendelstedt over a remark the Yankees maintained was yelled by a fa
A goalkeeper with one of Iran’s top soccer clubs has been suspended after he embraced a female supporter during a championship match, sports daily Khabar Varzeshi reported on Monday.Hossein Hosseini, 31, who plays for Tehran team Esteghlal, was suspended after the incident on April 12.The Esteghlal
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week.The State Department’s annual
‘CRIMINAL SCHEME’: The former US president faces 34 counts of falsifying business records over a US$130,000 ‘hush money’ payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels Former US president Donald Trump engaged in “election fraud” by paying hush money to a porn star just days before the 2016 presidential election, prosecutors said on Monday at the first ever criminal trial of a former president.“This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up,” Assistant Dis
CULTURAL DEBATE: Some Jewish students at Columbia University have reported intimidation and anti-Semitism amid the days-long demonstration Tensions flared on Monday between pro-Palestinian student protesters and school administrators at several US universities, as in-person classes were canceled and demonstrators arrested.The protests, which began last week at Columbia University with a large group of demonstrators establishing a so-ca
Taiwan’s human population is trending downward, yet the greens and browns of its farmlands and forests are increasingly broken up by the black of asphalt and the gray of concrete. According to a reconstruction of changes in land cover between 1904 and 2015 by the Academia Sinica’s Center for Geograp
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefl
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese pol
Drive-through (or drive-thru) restaurants provide people with the immense convenience of being able to purchase and pick up meals without needing to leave their vehicles. These restaurants have been around for decades, and their success has spawned a number of equally handy services.The drive-throug
On Tuesday last week, the flame for this summer’s Paris Olympics was lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games in southern Greece in a meticulously choreographed ceremony.It will then be carried through Greece for more than 5,000km before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens
對話 Dialogue清清:華華,這禮拜六去唱KTV,要不要約你弟弟一起來?好久沒看到他了。Qīngqing: Huáhua, zhè lǐbài liù qù chàng KTV, yào búyào yuē nǐ dìdi yìqǐ lái? Hǎojiǔ méi kàndào tā le.華華:他應該去不了。他最近都在忙期中考,每天都熬夜念書,沒時間出去玩。Huáhua: Tā yīnggāi qùbùliǎo. Tā zuìjìn dōu zài máng qízhōngkǎo, měitiān dōu áoyè niànshū, méi shíjiān chūqù wán. 清清:
It’s certainly been a pleasure watching the presidential campaign launch of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Hou You-yi (侯友宜) lurch painfully about like a wounded pachyderm in search of an elephant graveyard. Hou’s fall to third place in some polls last week appears early, and it might still be recoverable. But grumbling in his party about replacing him has already begun. Indeed, all indications are that the party that twice gave us Lien Chan (連戰), the most despised politician in Taiwan, as a presidential candidate and later offered voters Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), is arcing along its normal descending trajectory, the North Korean missile test of electoral politics. A KIND OF POLICY PLATFORM Last week the KMT doubled down on this path with Hou’s calls for nuclear power and more death penalty executions, standard KMT fare for decades (the latter is unnecessary since so many potential criminals are likely to die in traffic accidents long before they harm anyone). Apparently KMT policy institutions are not echo chambers so much as mausoleums where dead ideas are embalmed and then periodically put on display. The lack of public policy imagination is obvious. A less obvious facet of KMT ineptitude: with years of speculation that Hou would be their man in 2024, neither Hou nor the party insisted on interesting or experimental public policies to showcase Hou’s greatness in preparation for the showdown. Of course, that is even more true of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Hou’s slide and the media buzz surrounding it are obscuring the truly urgent problem the pro-Taiwan side faces: DPP presidential candidate William Lai (賴清德) has not expanded his voter support beyond the party base. In most polls he remains below 40 percent. Independent voters are staying away in droves, and for the moment the young are turning to
July 17 to July 23 When Yeh Ken-chuang (葉根壯) came of age, the traditional skills of architecture and carpentry that had been in his family for four generations were disappearing. After helping his uncle Yeh Teh-ling (葉得令) construct ships, residences and temples for more than a decade, Yeh struck out on his own at the age of 28 in 1960 as a damusi (大木司, chief carpenter), earning his lifelong title “Chief Chuang” (壯司). Around this time, builders in his homeland of Penghu were increasingly using reinforced concrete instead of wood, due to the humid climate. The period also saw a frenzy in temple construction as the economy improved, meaning there was plenty of work for Yeh. Adept in non-structural techniques such as doors, windows and furniture, as well as the intricate carvings and detailed decorations that adorned the structures, Yeh was able to adapt his skills, leading the reconstruction of the historic Hsiliao Daitian Temple (西寮代天宮) on Penghu’s main island in 1963. According to the book Crossing Traditions in Yeh Ken-chuang’s Large-scale Carpentry Skills (宮廟巧藝 :跨越傳統的葉根壯大木作技術), it was Penghu’s first temple that used a purely reinforced concrete structure. Before his life was cut short, Yeh created more than 70 temples and related structures across the various islands of Penghu and left behind more than 230 building plans. Although Yeh could have built temples and other structures on Taiwan proper, he only worked on a handful of projects outside of Penghu because he wanted to be close to his family. CLAN OF CARPENTERS The Yeh family’s woodworking tradition began with Yeh Ma-li (葉媽利), who learned the architecture and carpentry trade from an unknown master on Kinmen. The Yehs trace their roots to Kinmen, although this branch had been living in Penghu since the early 1600s. Yeh Ma-li was Penghu’s chief temple builder between 1860 and
New Taipei City | 14-23 | 10% | |
Hsinchu County | 14-22 | 10% | |
Hsinchu City | 14-22 | 10% | |
Taipei City | 14-22 | 10% | |
Miaoli County | 12-22 | 10% | |
Taoyuan City | 14-22 | 10% | |
Keelung City | 15-21 | 10% |
Yunlin County | 14-24 | 0% | |
Taichung City | 14-24 | 0% | |
Nantou County | 14-24 | 0% | |
Changhua County | 14-23 | 0% |
Chiayi County | 13-24 | 0% | |
Chiayi City | 14-25 | 0% | |
Tainan City | 15-22 | 0% | |
Kaohsiung City | 17-23 | 0% | |
Pingtung County | 16-25 | 0% |
Yilan County | 14-22 | 10% | |
Hualien County | 16-22 | 10% | |
Taitung County | 17-23 | 10% |
Kinmen County | 11-18 | 0% | |
Penghu County | 17-20 | 0% | |
Lienchiang County | 10-13 | 10% |